The Last Face

Name: The Last Face
Genre: Drama
Released: July 28, 2017
Duration: 130 min
Rating: 16
Cast: Ad, Charlize Theron, Denise Newman, Hopper Penn, Jared Harris

2017

METASCORE

Overwhelming dislike based on 21 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Ratings

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7.6

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7.6	Your Score
7.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Ratings

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The Last Face

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Movie Details & Credits

Gaga | Release Date: July 28, 2017 | R

Starring: Ad, Charlize Theron, Denise Newman, Hopper Penn, Jared Harris, Javier Bardem, Jean Reno, Oscar Best, Sebelethu Bonkolo, Zubin Cooper

Summary: Set against the devastating backdrop of war-torn Liberia, Dr. Miguel Leon (Javier Bardem) and Dr. Wren Petersen (Charlize Theron) must find a way to keep their relationship alive in extraordinarily difficult conditions battling their mutual passion for the value of life matched by the intensity of their diametrically opposed opinions on howSet against the devastating backdrop of war-torn Liberia, Dr. Miguel Leon (Javier Bardem) and Dr. Wren Petersen (Charlize Theron) must find a way to keep their relationship alive in extraordinarily difficult conditions battling their mutual passion for the value of life matched by the intensity of their diametrically opposed opinions on how best to solve the conflict that surrounds them.… Expand

Director: Sean Penn

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 130 min

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Critic Reviews

John Bleasdale

May 21, 2016

Penn's film doesn't entertain greatly nor does it have much coherent to say. Read full review

Tim Grierson

May 21, 2016

The film is mostly unmoving, neither the romance nor the social consciousness succeeding in stirring our emotions. Even worse, Penn lets the plight of displaced Africans slip into the background, resulting in yet another well-meaning film that wants to address planetary ills by concentrating our attention on the good-looking outsiders who come in to save the day. Read full review

Gary Goldstein

Jul 27, 2017

Shedding light on world atrocities is vital, but spelling them out in neon is deadly. Read full review

IndieWire Eric Kohn

May 21, 2016

Even without its mopey, painfully on-the-nose dialogue and ponderous story, The Last Face sets itself up for failure with its premise, and Penn's apparent inability to recognize it as such. It's his worst movie. Read full review

The Guardian Benjamin Lee

May 21, 2016

Nothing about the film comes close to authenticity and it’s largely down to Penn’s remarkably amateurish direction. Read full review

The Telegraph Tim Robey

May 21, 2016

Both the festival and filmmakers might have been better off waiting another week, until the screens were empty and delegates had all gone home, before unveiling this thing, perhaps to a slightly less derisory audience of seagulls. Read full review

The Playlist Nikola Grozdanovic

May 21, 2016

It’s, all told, a preposterous and pretentious mess of a film, and all the good intentions in the world don’t mean anything when the execution is as ham-fisted as it is here. Read full review

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User Reviews

TheTrueMovies

Jun 17, 2019

A movie about blood, war, love and human being. Really but really unrated!!!

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

FrancisDG

Jun 1, 2019

Exceptional movie that reflects on war and its disasters. People didn't get the real messagge of the film.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

acaseofyou

Sep 18, 2017

I like the movie. Maby the main reason is the great music, composed by Hans Zimmer! In my opinion, Charlize Theron was good. Had really sad, sad eyes, her expression was convincing.

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

Acclamation

Feb 2, 2018

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Spoiler, a woman is given a cesarian section, in the jungle, with no supplies or gloves, on doctor’s orders without asking her if she want to live or not, and this is portrayed as something good.
This is a vacuous romance of circumstance, backdropped with real, human suffering caused by the insane politics of the UN.
I think there was some Feminist stuff thrown in, but I’m too basic to understand all that crap.
The music is excellent.
Watch anything about the country of Katanga, and you’ll understand what is so aweful about this fim.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

DotTheEyes

Aug 19, 2017

Within the space of a single showing on the French Riviera, an ambitiously mounted action-drama-romance film with an A-list cast and an Oscar-winning crew became a pariah, not shown again for several months and unseen in the United States until an unheralded on-demand release over a yearWithin the space of a single showing on the French Riviera, an ambitiously mounted action-drama-romance film with an A-list cast and an Oscar-winning crew became a pariah, not shown again for several months and unseen in the United States until an unheralded on-demand release over a year later. Unfortunately, The Last Face is deserving of its fate. I am an admirer of Sean Penn the director; with The Indian Runner, The Crossing Guard, The Pledge, and Into the Wild, he proved himself a distinctive and engaging cinematic storyteller and transcended any actor-turned-director vanity-project stigma. But, wow, his first directorial failure is a momentous and peculiar one. There are a thousand and one ways to criticize The Last Face. I am not, as a hard-and-fast rule, opposed to the idea of a film focused on a Doctors Without Borders-type organization, but it is hard not to notice the conspicuous absence of a single interesting or multi-dimensional black character in a film almost entirely set in Africa. They are simply extras, present to smile or dance or, most frequently, violently die, while a banal Western love story is foregrounded. A love story in name only which drains Javier Bardem of his usual charisma and vigor and forces poor Charlize Theron to deliver nearly constant, wince-inducing voice-over. Sample: "The resilience and beauty offered by the refugees of war inspired an intoxication of intimacy, and in this place of so much war, had I found peace?" Just as tone-deaf and uncomfortably navigated are the lapses into didacticism, when characters express hoary the-world-doesn't-care opinions or deliver entire sermons-speeches on humanitarianism. The film is overwrought in several ways—a busy structure (lots of "ten days earlier in such-and-such place"-type subtitles), a cacophonous score of World-music chants and laments by Hans Zimmer—yet also thinly imagined, easily distracted, and without a convincing emotional center. There are even moments approaching genuine-albeit-unintentional camp comedy; consider a scene in which the two leads flirt via aggressive, flamboyant brushing of their teeth. Dental hygiene as mating dance. It beggars description...and Sean Penn earnestly brought this to the most prestigious film festival in the world!… Expand

3 of 4 users found this helpful31

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